Perhaps this is for the first time that not a single case of cheating has been reported from Ludhiana district in the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) compartment exams for Class 12 students from across 21 examination centers.
The compartment exams concluded with the geography
paper on Thursday.

Gurjot Singh, deputy district education officer (secondary), also confirmed this to Hindustan Times: “I had visited several examination centers, but no cheating case was reported.”

According to the education department, in 2012, around 100 cheating cases were reported from Ludhiana district during the annual exams in March; while in March 2013, 12 cases were reported from the district.

Gurjot Singh told HT: “The compartment exams for Class 12 are over on Thursday, but no case of cheating has been reported to us.”When asked that not a single flying squad visited any of the examination centers across the district, Singh replied: “In Ludhiana, no flying squad was deputed to visit examination centers, as very few students had appeared in the compartment exam this year. However, if the board had sent any squad to the centres, then we are not aware of it.”

However, the deputy DEO admitted that the cheating cases in Ludhiana district had come down considerably in last few year.

“Moreover, we keep tight vigil on the examination centers across the district to contain cheating,” he added.

Perhaps this is also for the first time in the history of the PSEB exams that flying squad was not deputed on the examination duty, even though at several examination centers - especially in main subjects like English, science and mathematics - more than 500 students had appeared.

A schoolteacher, who had been a member of a flying squad some time back, said: “This is for the first time that a cheating case has not been reported from the district during the compartment exams while in 2012 there were reports of several cheating cases. Now the question arises: 'was it the absence of flying squads that the cheating cases were not reported this time?'”

Responding to the absence of flying squads from the compartment exams, PSEB vice-chairman Suresh Tandon said: “The flying squads were not sent because we had already instructed the DEO's to visit the examination centers or depute teachers for checking the centers. We send flying squads only during the annual exams.”

However, the PSEB vice-chairman too admitted that in comparison to 2012, cheating cases in all districts of Punjab had come down considerably: “We are happy that the board is able to contain the cheating cases.”